Sheila Penrose: Short- and long-term conversations to come

This year’s World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos is getting into gear as business, political and NGO leaders assemble from around the world alongside policy makers, academics and – always! – the media.

The Davos theme for 2016 “Mastering the Fourth Industrial Revolution” addresses how new technologies are merging the physical, digital and biological worlds to impact individuals, organizations and societies, and how they will operate in the future. It’s a fundamental topic for the longer-term.

Yet there are plenty of nearer-term issues that are sure to monopolize discussions here. These include uncertainty about China’s path forward, financial market volatility, sluggish growth in Europe, depressed oil and minerals markets, refugee and immigration issues, Russia’s global role, Iran and Cuba poised to re-enter the international community, Canada shifting to the left, Argentina shifting to the right… and gradually weaning the world economy from years of artificially low interest rates.

We’ll see how the short-term and long-term topics balance out…

In addition to attending sessions and meeting with clients and prospects, I’ll be involved in discussions with other company chairmen and with the work the World Economic Forum is doing on gender parity.

I look forward to sharing my learnings and observations over the next few days.